Book Report: The Anonymous Venetian

24. Donna Leon, The Anonymous Venetian (1994) (11/13/19)

This is the third in the series of Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries, set in Venice, which, as I remarked in my last report, may lack a bit in terms of a satisfying "mystery," but deliver nicely in terms of local color—the neighborhoods of greater Venice, in this case including the rather seamy industrial area of Mestre; the graft and corruption of official Italian society; and social relations both personal and professional. Also, food.

This case (which in the US was called Dressed for Death; I read a UK edition) involves the murder of a man—a banker, as it turns out—dressed as a transvestite. Those two elements, banking (or money, writ large) and the ladies and gents of the night, become the pivots of the mystery—which is a fairly straightforward one: there are no big twists. Except that even getting a credible confession isn't enough to render justice, owing to the reputable stature of the chief man accused. Who's going to believe a confessed murderer against him? Fortunately, one final small twist in the last ten pages gives Brunetti the proof he needs. And all is just again with Venice. For the moment.

As always, Brunetti's interactions with his superior, Vice-Questore Patta (see also my first report), were amusing. For example:

"Bankers do not kill one another, Brunetti," Patta said with the rock-solid certainty so characteristic of him.
 Too late, Brunetti realized the danger here. Patta had only to see the advantage of attributing Mascari's death to some violent episode in his deviant private life, and he would be justified in leaving it to the Mestre police to search for the person responsible and thus effectively remove Brunetti from any involvement with the case.
 "You're probably right, sir," Brunetti conceded, "but this is not the time when we can risk a suggestion in the press that we have not explored every possible avenue in this case."
 Like a bull at the slightest flip of the cape, Patta responded to this reference to the media. "What are you suggesting then?"